The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Muslim Persecution of Christians, November 2015

"We have been forced to live under a climate of fear, this is not
England. I grew up in in to a free decent country accepting British
values and the British rule of law. ... I think there is two laws, one
for them and one for us." — Nissar Hussain, a former Muslim living in
West Yorkshire.

"They wanted to kill us by burning us alive, but we managed to
escape. We have lost everything." — Ramni Das, 57, accused of witchcraft
in Bangladesh.

Iraq's parliament passed a law that will force Christian children
to become Muslim if their father converts to Islam or if their
Christian mother marries a Muslim.

In Pakistan, an 8-year-old girl, Sara Bibi, was beaten and locked
in a school bathroom by her Muslim head teacher for using the same
toilet as Muslims. She was then expelled from the school.

As Muslim jihadis, mobs and regimes terrorized Christians and others
throughout the world of Islam, in the West, institutions -- from
governments to grade schools -- empowered and praised Islam, often at
the expense of Christians.

U.S. President Barack Obama described the idea of giving preference to persecuted Christian refugees as "shameful"
-- even though helping persecuted refugees is what America has always
been doing and much of what it is about. "That's not American. That's
not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion," Obama
admonished. Unfortunately for the president, statistics were soon released,
indicating that "the current [refugee] system overwhelmingly favors
Muslim refugees. Of the 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United
States so far, only 53 are Christians while 2,098 are Muslim." So,
although Christians are 10% of Syria's population -- and possibly the
most persecuted group -- only 2% of the refugees entering America are
Christian.

Adding to the confusion, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush falsely claimed that Syrian President Bashar Assad "executes Christians."
In reality, not only have Christian minorities long been protected
under the secular regime of Assad -- himself a member of a religious
minority -- but many Christian refugees who fled the jihad in Iraq went
to Assad's Syria for sanctuary.

Accordingly, the head of the Syrian Catholic Church, Mar Ignace Youssif III Youan, in a November interview, accused
Western governments of "perpetuat[ing] the endless conflict in Syria"
and of having "betrayed the Christians of the East. We explained from
the beginning that our situation was different from that of other
nations in the region, they were not listened to. And now we mourn
deaths over the past five years. ... It's a shame that the West has
abandoned Christians to this situation."Less than a week after jihadis murdered 130 people in Paris, Hillary Clinton asserted that Muslims "have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism."

The same pro-Islamist, anti-Christian spirit floated through some
Western schools. In the United Kingdom, pupils at Oldknow Academy were
reportedly led in "anti-Christian chants" in assemblies that were "like a rally" with a "plainly divisive" attitude." According to the Birmingham Mail,
Asif Khan, a Muslim teacher, led pupils, shouting, "We don't believe in
Christmas, do we?" and "Jesus wasn't born in Bethlehem, was he?"
Children were also asked to shout: "Do we send Christmas cards? No!" and
"Do we celebrate Christmas? No!" Khan denies the claims.

However, Ann Connor, an education adviser contracted to work for
Department for Education who had earlier visited the school, said, "I
found the school to be extraordinary. There was an element of fear." A
female staff member was said to be "frightened of Mr. Khan." And a
parent complained of the "increasing Islamic ethos in the school."

In the United States, a seventh-grade teacher at Spring View Middle School in Huntington Beach, California, deviated
from the district's official curriculum and had students sing "This Is
My Fight Song." Lyrics from the song included, "Islam ... Allah's on the
way. They will preach them loud tonight. Can you hear their voice this
time? This is their fight song. Spread Islam now song. Prove that
they're right song."

Parents only found out about the song after some students
accidentally brought the pamphlet home. "I believe that by singing the
song," one of the angry parents said, "the children feel comfortable
that maybe Allah is the only god and maybe that they should start
following him. I'm not OK with that." The school responded by sending an
apology to parents and said it would continue looking into the
incident.Meanwhile, in the Islamic world, it was business as usual. November's
roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes,
but is not limited to, the following:

Muslim Slaughter of Christians and Savagery

Libya: Two Christians were killed
by gunshots to their heads. The bodies of Wasfy Bakhit Gad Mikhail, 37,
and his brother Fahmy, 27, were found on November 13 near Al Khums. On
their bodies were black gloves with Islamic phrases. Like many other
Christians killed in Libya -- including the 21 who were slaughtered
earlier this year by the Islamic State -- the brothers were working as
laborers and sent their earnings back home to support their families.
"They were targeted and killed because they are Christians," said Father
Sulaiman Botros. "They kept the faith and refused to deny the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are our church's martyrs."

Egypt: Marwa Ahmed, a 26-year-old former Muslim woman, was killed
by her family for converting to Christianity and marrying a Christian.
Three years ago she fled her hometown and moved to Alexandria with her
new husband, where she gave birth to a boy and girl. But when her uncle
and cousins learned that she was back visiting Taymiyya, they tracked
her down and kidnapped her. According to the report, her uncle then
forced her younger sister to "kill her to 'punish' her for her
conversion." Other reports say that the uncle killed Marwa himself.

Yet another
Christian soldier was killed in his (Muslim majority) unit. Bishoy
Nata'i Bushri Kamal, 21, was found dead at his military base in Cairo.
The army told his family that he had committed suicide by hanging.
However, the man's uncle, Sami Bushri, said: "We completely reject this
[claim that he had committed suicide]." The uncle added that Bishoy had
recently gotten into a quarrel with a certain "Mustafa," a fellow
soldier. Injuries were found on Kamal's abdomen, face and back -- all of which indicate that he was tortured, then murdered. (See here for five more examples
of Egyptian Christian soldiers found dead, followed by military claims
of suicide or some other "accident," and rejection of these claims by
their families. They all point to conflicts with Muslim soldiers in the
unit, including attempts to force the Christians to convert to Islam.

Yemen: Two Muslim converts to Christianity, in two separate incidents, were murdered
because they left Islam. In Taiz, an al-Qaeda member shot a Christian
man 15 to 20 times. The second Christian, shot once in his home, was
killed either by another Islamic jihadi group or by members of his own
family. A colleague of the second convert said that Muslims were
harassing and threatening the man: "A lot of people didn't like that he
was a convert... I think it is because of his faith; there is no other
reason." Authorities, as usual, made no arrests.

United Kingdom: Former Muslim, Nissar Hussain, 49, was struck
13 times with a pickax and repeatedly punched and kicked by two hooded
men, as he left his house in West Yorkshire. He suffered a shattered
kneecap and a broken hand (video of attack here).
According to the "apostate," he became a target after he converted to
Christianity in 1996 and his family appeared in a 2008 documentary
exposing the mistreatment of Muslim converts. Since then, local Muslims
drove his family from a previous home and have attacked them in the
streets. "Our lives have been jeopardised and subjugated," Hussain said.
"We have been forced to live under a climate of fear, this is not
England. I grew up in in [sic] to a free decent country accepting
British values and the British rule of law. I think multiculturalism has
failed, I think David Cameron's Big Society has failed and I think
there is two laws, one for them and one for us."

Bangladesh: On November 18, three men attacked
Fr. Piero Parolari, a 64-year-old missionary who had been working at
St. Vincent Hospital since 1985. "They wanted to kill him," said a
colleague. "Three thugs were on the motorcycle. One shot him in the
neck, but only grazed it, whilst another threw a knife (perhaps a
Chinese knife) at the carotid artery. The cut did most of the damage.
Fr. Parolari lost a lot of blood." The priest fell and hit his head, had
bruises on his eyes and body, and three broken ribs. He was reported
suffering from respiratory problems, and fluid had to be drained from
his lungs.

On November 5, four Catholic families narrowly escaped death
when a group of Muslims burned down their homes on the accusation of
witchcraft. A Muslim mob tried to lock them inside their houses before
setting them on fire. "For more than a year, Muslim youths from a
neighboring village accused us of practicing witchcraft and told us to
leave the village. They abused us in public and threw bricks at our
houses," said Ramni Das, 57, who lost two homes in the attack. "They
wanted to kill us by burning us alive, but we managed to escape. We have
lost everything."

Kenya: A man exposed as a secret Christian escaped his Muslim in-laws, who tried to stab him
and seized his wife and children. Hassan Ali said that on the evening
of November 11, Muslim neighbors and his in-laws, armed with knives,
knocked on his door. He said that Muslims in the area may have become
suspicious of his break from Islam since he had stopped attending the
mosque. "I heard people talking outside my house and mentioning my
name... I knew I was in trouble when they started questioning my wife
about her faith. I then escaped through the window." His wife's
relatives then seized the woman and their two children, a 7-year-old boy
and a 4-year-old girl, and took them to her parents' home.

According to a source, "The parents are telling Ali's wife that the
children should start going to a madrassa, an Islamic elementary school.
... Ali's wife is facing pressure from her parents to recant the
Christian faith, and she is emotionally troubled."

Ali said it will be "very difficult" to return to his house or see
his family again. "What is worrying me at the moment is that
communication between my wife and me has now been disconnected. I cannot
reach her again. I know my wife and my two children, Hussein and
Mariam, will be Islamized. This is making me to have sleepless nights."

Central Nigeria: Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen regularly commit
atrocities against Christians that should be described as
"ethnic/religious cleansing," according
to a report by the Nigeria Conflict Security Analysis Network (NCSAN).
Despite the media narrative that Hausa violence is a result of
environmental degradation and migration, the herdsmen are reportedly
motivated by an Islamic agenda that seeks to cleanse the land of
Christians no less than the more notorious jihadi organization, Boko
Haram. Data from the report finds that in just a year-and-a-half
(December 2013 to July 2015), the Muslim herdsmen slaughtered 1,484
Christians (532 men, 507 women, and 445 children), injured 2,388
Christians (1,069 men, 817 women, and 502 children), and burned or
destroyed 171 churches, 314 houses and 39 shops and businesses of
Christians.

The NCSAN report concludes that "for many people the atrocities
committed by the Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen can be, at best, described
as ethnic cleansing, and at worst, as genocide. This is because, from
the evidence presented, there is a deliberate and calculated infliction
of physical destruction, targeted at particular religious [Christian]
and ethnic groups. Such destruction is supported and driven by a
religious supremacist ideology to ensure Islam dominates all aspects of
life in Taraba State."

Central African Republic (CAR): Thousands of people have been
killed since 2013, when the Muslim militias known as "Seleka" seized
power in the Christian-majority country. After months of killings,
raping, and looting by Seleka, Christian militias known as "Anti-Balaka"
emerged and were likely responsible for killing three Muslims. In retaliation,
Muslims torched a church and slaughtered over 30 men and women, and
torched their homes, in Christian-majority parts of Bangui (the CAR
capital). According to a local witness, "The people have lost
everything, and have nowhere to lay their head. They have become
wanderers and vagabonds in their own country... [T]he objective
continues to be to impoverish the Christians by burning all their homes
and property... The threat of sudden death is on everyone's mind, given
what is going on in CAR far from the media cameras. We are defenceless,
our very lives exposed, and only God can save us."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Spain: On November 2, a group of Muslims stormed
the Church of our Lady of Carmen, in the town of Rincon de la Victoria,
and smashed wooden statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the cross. A
spokesman for the Diocese of Malaga said the attack was not
representative of all Muslims and that the diocese was committed to
maintaining "respect and fraternity between different religious groups."
The month before, a Moroccan man was arrested in the same town after
trying to destroy another statue of the Virgin Mary while screaming
"Allahu Akbar!"

On
November 2, a group of Muslims stormed the Church of our Lady of
Carmen, in the town of Rincon de la Victoria, Spain, and smashed wooden
statues of the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the cross. The month before, a
Moroccan man was arrested in the same town after trying to destroy
another statue of the Virgin Mary while screaming "Allahu Akbar!"

Iraq: The Islamic State reportedly blew up the convent
belonging to the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena on the
morning of November 5. The destruction of the convent also caused
considerable damage to adjacent buildings. According to the Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights and other media,
this latest attack by the "caliphate" occurred in Tel Keppe -- "Hill of
Stones" -- one of the largest historically Assyrian Christian towns in
northern Iraq, about 8 miles from Mosul.

Egypt: On November 12, three gunmen opened
fire on an Evangelical church by the Giza pyramids, near Cairo.
Separately, in the city of Rashid, a retired Muslim judge is attempting
to destroy a
church. Judge Mohamed Mostafa Kamel Tirana and his two sons claim that
they purchased the church building in 1990, and say that it was their
family's ancestral home. However, Tirana only registered the purchase of
the building in 2008 -- 18 years after the alleged purchase. The lawyer
acting for the church leaders says the building has been registered as a
church since 1948 in the city's real estate authority, the Property
Taxes office and the 1946 Cadastral map. "His purpose of taking over the
church is demolishing its building and rebuild[ing] big shopping malls
on its land," said church leader Luka Asaad Awad. Last September 2, the
judge managed to infiltrate the church and tried to demolish the
building from inside. "We beg President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi to intervene
and protect the church and stop the demolition of it," said the church
leader.

Kenya: Muslims burned down
two Christian churches, Faith Victory Church and Holistic Church, on
the outskirts of Tiribe town. Prior to these arson attacks, church
leaders received threatening messages from Muslims, including calls to
"stop converting our people to Christianity, and if not you will soon
regret changing our people to Christianity." Christians have been since
worshiping in tents, some of which have been flooded by heavy rains --
five people were swept away by a downpour.

Indonesia: More than 1,000 Christian churches have been shut
down in Muslim-majority Indonesia since 2006, when the "religious
harmony" law was passed, according to a report.
The law requires minority religious groups to secure 60 signatures of
local residents of another faith, and a written recommendation from
local authorities before obtaining permits to build houses of worship,
which, as Christian leaders indicate, is often impossible.

Dhimmitude

Iraq: Parliament passed a law
that will force Christian children to become Muslim if their father
converts to Islam or if their Christian mother marries a Muslim. Leaders
of the Assyrian Christians, Yazidis, Mandeans, Kakai and Bahai
vigorously fought the law and their representatives walked out of the
parliament session in protest after it was passed. They had requested
adding: "Minors will keep their current religion until the completion of
18 years of age, then they have the right to choose their religion" --
but the clause was rejected.

Iran: Fourteen Christians, among them converts from Islam, were arrested
after agents from the Ministry of Intelligence raided a private
house-church meeting. Most of the group had previously been members of
the Emmanuel Protestant Church in Tehran, which Iranian authorities had
forced to close in 2012. According to Christian Solidarity, "We are
extremely concerned at the arrests of these 14 Christians and the fact
that their whereabouts remain unknown, which gives rise to concerns
regarding their wellbeing. These people had merely gathered peacefully
and had not partaken in any illegal activities. It is unacceptable that
the Iranian authorities continue to harass the Christian community
without cause."

Uzbekistan: On Sunday, November 8 in Tashkent, the nation's
capital, twelve Protestant Christians holding a worship meeting in a
private home were detained,
and some beaten, after eight plain-clothes anti-terrorism officers
stormed their morning meeting. A large quantity of Christian literature
-- approximately 100 books -- was also confiscated. Two Christians were
handcuffed and another was "hit and kicked" in the head and in the
abdomen by an armed officer. The Christians were then taken to the
police station where they were held for nine hours. During that time,
they were forbidden to use the toilet and denied water. Some of the
Christians detained had infant children with them and were not allowed
to feed them until they had written statements denouncing Sarvar
Zhuliyev, in whose home they had met. Christian parents were forced to
write statements declaring that Sarvar Zhuliyev had "taught them the
faith of Jesus Christ." Some of the children were also interrogated by
police and forced to write statements. Problems began when the head
teacher of a school in the capital's Yashnobod District told police that
two pupils were speaking about their Christian faith with other pupils.

Turkey: A survey revealed
that "Eighty percent of minorities in Turkey say they cannot express
themselves openly on social media, while 35 percent said they are
subject to hate speech on the same platform." The survey was conducted
among 746 Turkish citizens who are members of the Greek, Armenian,
Syriac, and Jewish communities. Over one-third of respondents also said
they were subject to defamation, humiliation, obscenity or threats due
to their minority identity on social media.

Pakistani Dhimmitude

Sana John, a 13-year-old Christian girl, was kidnapped
and converted to Islam by force in Haji Pura, near Silakot. On November
9, Muslim men stopped the girl while she was returning home from school
and seized her. The Christian family was threatened not to file a
complaint. According to her father, "In Pakistan there is no justice for
the poor and, above all, no one cares for Christians, no one has heard
my cry. The police do not pursue the culprits, no one is doing anything
for us."

A few days later, a Muslim family kidnapped,
beat and left naked on the streets an 8-year-old Christian girl, as a
way to "punish" her uncle for pursuing a relationship with a female
member of the Muslim family. The Muslims kidnapped the Christian girl,
named Parwasha, on her way home from school, after which she was
stripped naked and beaten. When the girl ran home to her family, they
went to local police, only to find that the Muslim family had already
filed a complaint against the entire Christian family for "shaming" the
Muslim family.

Another 8-year-old girl, Sara Bibi, was scolded, beaten and locked
in a school bathroom by her Muslim head teacher for using the same
toilet as Muslims. Headmistress of the school, Zahida Rana, locked Sara
in the bathroom and then shouted at her: "You are a Christian, an
infidel. How dare you use the same toilet as Muslim girls?" Despite
vigorously pleading her innocence, Sara was beaten and only released
from the bathroom 3 hours later, at the end of the school day. The girl
has since been expelled from the school.

A Christian activist, Aslam Masih, was shot
in the legs by four Muslims in Lahore. The attack, says Christian
lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill, "is a clear sign of intimidation towards our
work." Before shooting, the criminals asked him to withdraw a complaint
that he had filed with the police. When he refused they opened fire.

A group of masked men set fire
to a Christian broadcasting outlet, Gawahi TV, in Karachi. The building
collapsed. Gawahi television was established in February 2013 in a
joint collaboration between Catholic and Protestant communities, to
"spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people of all religions who live
in Pakistan." As reported by the television website, about 12 million
people watched it regularly. Despite receiving many threats, and making
many requests for security, police did not help.

About this Series

While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of
Christians is expanding. "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was
developed to collate some -- by no means all -- of the instances of
persecution that surface each month.

It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.It posits that such persecution is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.